La Milice Française Dies in Italy

A rare and striking eyewitness account of the last days of the Milice française in 1945, between exile, fanaticism and final shipwreck in the collapse of the Third Reich.

March 1945. Europe is collapsing, Germany is in its death throes, and in the chaos of a war drawing to its close, a handful of men refuse to give up. These are the last loyalists of the Milice française, cast onto the roads of exile, hunted in France, despised in Germany, and finally sent to die in Italy. Joseph Darnand, Himmler, Pétain, the French SS of the Charlemagne division: this book lifts the curtain on a desperate flight, torn between shattered illusions and fanatical commitments.

From secret negotiations between Nazis and Allies to the last desperate stands, this breathtaking account plunges into the heart of a dark chapter of history, where courage mingles with despair and loyalty collides with the inevitable. How far were these men prepared to go for a regime already dead? How did they survive the final days of the Reich? Discover the raw, unvarnished story of these fighters in the shadows, who had nothing left to lose.

The author, a former milicien born in 1924, presents here a previously unpublished first-hand account of the final battles fought by the Milice in Italy.